


you're alive (at least as as far as i can tell you are)

by Root21



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, High School Teacher AU, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-18 01:16:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3550649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Root21/pseuds/Root21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke Griffin was an artist, not a teacher. So how did she wind up here? A teacher at her old high school, with a boss that's infamous for being ruthless. Except, Clarke doesn't think she's that bad. In fact, she kind of likes her.</p><p>High School Teacher AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Clarke took one look at the familiar double doors in front of her and sighed.

The day she graduated, she told herself that that was the last time she would ever step foot inside Ark High School. Yet, here she was.

The last thing she expected to be doing after college was teaching, especially at her old high school. Clarke dreamed of getting her degree in art and working her way up to becoming a world famous artist. Instead, she wound up flipping burgers at McDonald's for a year.

Her mom had warned her the day that she told her what she was majoring in. "Clarke, do you know how hard it is to get a job with an art degree?" she had repeated over and over again, but art was her passion. She'd known that it was all she wanted to do with her life since the day that her dad bought her her first set of colored pencils.

After a year of being paid minimum wage and living with her mom, Clarke finally gave in and went back to school. Now, here she was, Ark High's newest art teacher.

Even after she'd decided to get her teaching license, she never intended to return to her old alma mater. It was her mom that had heard of the opening and, being close friends with two of school district's board members, had managed to get her the job without even an interview.

Clarke pulled her phone out of her pocket to glance at the clock. It read 6:54 AM. "Shit! I'm late!" Ignoring the curious glances of the students that had arrived early, Clarke walked into the building as quickly as she could while trying to maintain some air of professionalism.

She power-walked through the halls, trying to remember the path she had taken when she had come in over the summer to set up her classroom. When she finally spotted the doorway labelled "162", she let out a sigh of relief. "Why'd they have to rearrange this stupid fucking school after I graduated," she muttered quietly, trying to jam her key into the locked door.

"Need some help there?" a voice sounded from behind Clarke, causing her to jump.

Clarke turned to find a woman not much older than her leaning against the doorway of a classroom across the hall.

"Uh, no I think I got it," she said, finally managing to twist the key in the door. She pushed the door open and stepped inside her classroom. _My classroom_. The room was exactly how she had left it, but with the official start of the school year, it felt all the more real.

"So you're the new art teacher, huh?" The woman from across the hallway now standing in her doorway, watching her. "First teaching gig?"

"Um, yeah," Clarke said, shaking off her fear about the situation. She turned around and extended her hand. "I'm Clarke Griffin."

The other woman glanced down at her hand for a moment before reaching out to shake it. "Raven Reyes, I teach a couple of tech classes across the hall."

"Tech? I thought this was the art wing."

Raven snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, the art wing, the music wing, and the tech wing. When the new principal moved around all the rooms she decided to stick every single underfunded class in the same area."

"Isn't that kind of distracting? How am I supposed to teach with people playing instruments and operating saws right next door?"

"See, that's what I said! I'm teaching the future engineers of America over here. It's rough getting a room full of sixteen year olds to concentrate when all they can hear is fucking Mozart. But just try and tell that to Commander Bitch."

Clarke's eyes widened at Raven's words. "I'm sorry, but who?"

"Principal. Total bitch, but I'm sure you know that from your interview. Listen, I gotta go set up shop before the kiddos start coming in. Good luck!" Raven walked out and back into her room across the hall.

Clarke took a glance at the clock hanging above her doorway, seeing that it read 7:15 AM. Her first class was going to start coming in in five minutes. She walked over to the office chair behind her desk and sat down, taking in a deep breath. "It's gonna be okay, Clarke. Breathe."

She set the new briefcase that her mother had gifted her down on her desk and dug through it, searching for the copies of the syllabus she had made beforehand. Just as she pulled them out and placed them in front of her, the first bell of the school year rang out.

Clarke took one last deep breath as she heard the students start filling the halls near her room. As the first student walked in and took a seat, she welcomed them with a bright smile. "Welcome to art!"

Only receiving a blank, tired stare back, Clarke's bright smile faltered. This was going to be a long day.

\--

"This year should be a lot of fun for all of us! Come talk to me if you need somethi-" the loud sound of the bell ringing cut off Clarke's words, all of the students in the room quickly rising from their seats and shuffling out.

"Something. Come to me if you need something." Clarke sighed out to the now empty classroom. This wasn't what she had imagined at all. She'd tried to be as chipper and fun as she could, asking all the kids to talk about themselves and what they did over summer, but every time she called on someone to speak, they would groan and roll their eyes.

No one in either of the two classes she'd already spoken to had even seemed remotely interested in art. Clarke knew that art was a mandatory class that had to be taken at least once in the students' four years of high school, but she never expected everyone to be so bored by her and her class.

She glanced down at the class schedule she had laying on her desk and sighed happily, seeing that she now had a planning period. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.

"Rough morning?" came a voice from the doorway. Clarke nearly fell out of her chair from the sudden noise, causing Raven to chuckle.

"Are you gonna make it a habit to sneak up on me, because I don't think I'm going to make it very long if you do." Clarke got up out of her chair and walked over to the dark-haired teacher. "But to answer your question, god yes."

"Yeah, I figured. Those kids, they'll eat you alive if you let them." Raven glanced around at the empty room and then up at the clock. "You have a planning period this period?" At Clarke's nod she turned and started walking towards the door. "Me too. C'mon I'll introduce you to some of the others."

Clarke let out a defeated sounding "Alright." before following Raven out into the hallway. The halls were deserted, as all the students were in class.

Raven looked at Clarke's sullen, defeated appearance. "Don't look so down. I swear, it gets easier. Ask anyone here."

"But this isn't even what I wanted to do. What if I'm just not supposed to be a teacher?" Clarke's eyes were glued to the floor.

Raven smiled. "That's the first sign that you're cut out to be one. If you actually thought you knew what you were doing on the first day, there's no way you could be a good teacher. I've been here for two years and I have no clue what I'm doing." She stopped in front of a door labelled "teacher's room". "This is it! The only safe place from the little demons."

She pushed the door open to reveal a couple of tables surrounded by chairs. Clarke walked into the room and glanced around. A small counter stemmed from the right wall, and on it sat a very abused looking microwave and coffee maker. Next to the counter stood a small fridge. "You know, when I was in high school I always imagined this place to look more...amazing?"

"Trust me, the more time you spend in this place the more it seems like a palace." Raven said, before waving at a younger looking woman sitting at one of the tables. "Now come on already." She said, walking over and taking a seat next to the woman.

Clarke nervously walked over the table. "Uh, hi. I'm Clarke. Miss Griffin, I guess," she stuttered out, tentatively taking a seat across from the two teachers.

From a distance, the woman in front of her didn't look old enough to be out of high school, let alone a teacher in a high school. Now sitting across from her, Clarke could see that despite her young looks, she carried a certain confidence that made her look much older. The woman smiled cheerfully and reached out to shake Clarke's hand. "I'm Octavia! Octavia Blake, actually. You're the new art teacher, right? Thank god, Mrs. Daniels, the old art teacher that retired, was such a pain in the ass."

"She's one of the gym teachers, which you can probably tell by how wired she is at ten in the morning." Raven said, playfully elbowing Octava in the ribs.

Octavia rolled her eyes and grinned. "Whatever she told you is probably a lie. Raven's just determined to make sure everyone thinks she hates her job so she doesn't have to admit how much she loves her kids."

Clarke sat watching the exchange, feeling a small smile form on her face. "I knew the attitude was just an act."

"Both of you, shut up," Raven shot both of them a glare.

Octavia ignored her. "Too early for lunch, so I'm going to guess you're on your planning period?" Clarke nodded. "Wow, first day on the job and Raven's already given you a death wish. Good work, Reyes."

"What?" Clarke gave Raven a look of confusion.

"If she was going to kill us, Octavia, she'd have to leave her office and actually come to the teacher's room. We're safe." She looked over at Clarke. "We're talking about Principal Grounds, aka the source of all evil. She thinks that sitting in the teacher's lounge during your planning period is a waste of time. Thinks you need to be doing some actual planning or something," she said with a snort.

Clarke looked at both of them skeptically. "Why does everyone seem to hate her so much?"

At Clarke's words, Octavia choked on the coffee she was taking a sip of. "Have you met the woman?"

"No, actually. The district board got me the job, so I've never really even seen her." Clarke was met with wide-eyed stares and silence from both Raven and Octavia. "Is that bad?"

"Well you're sure in for a treat at the meeting today. Don't worry, she's hard to miss. Walks like she's got something shoved up her ass, will kill you with a look, and her eyeliner...oh my god. It's like she tries to look like a raccoon." Raven said, sitting up straight in her chair and shooting Clarke a deadly glare. Octavia burst into a fit of giggles at her impression.

She was met with a blank stare from Clarke. "Um...meeting?" Clarke let out after a second of staring at Raven, who then shot her an exasperated look.

Octavia smacked Raven on the shoulder. "Give her a break, she's new!" She took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "Weekly after school faculty meeting. Totally mandatory. Don't miss it unless you're dying or Commander Bitch will make sure you are dying." At Clarke's terrified expression, she continued. "It's no big deal, really. We just talk about boring stuff, get bitched at, then go home. Every Monday, same deal."

Just as Clarke opened her mouth to ask her more about this meeting, the bell rang out, signalling the end of that period. "Oh god, I have a class this period. I gotta go, bye!" Clarke said, jumping up from her chair and racing out the door, the closing door cutting off the sounds of Octavia and Raven's laughter behind her.

\--

As the last student made their way out of the room, Clarke let her head fall forward onto the desk. Being the only art teacher in the school, her class load was fairly large in comparison to the other teachers. After meeting all five of her classes today, she was completely exhausted.

She could barely remember what she had planned to say to each of the classes, let alone take in a single name that the students told her. They were all so similar, and after the third class, all the faces started blending together.

Collecting the few things that she'd taken out over the course of her day, Clarke was ready to go home and take a long nap.

Raven's head popped into the doorway, "Staff meeting, five minutes, don't forget!", before quickly popping back out. Smacking her head on her briefcase, Clarke groaned at her words. So much for her nap.

She quickly grabbed her things and made her way out to the hallway, determined to be on time for this meeting. The last thing she wanted was for the principal's first impression of her to be that she was late.

Once she stepped out in the hallway, Clarke was hitting with a crushing realization. She had no idea where the staff meetings took place. There were a number of places in the school big enough to fit all of the staff, and she only had five minutes before the meeting started.

After fifteen minutes and trips to the auditorium, the cafeterias, and the teacher's lounge, Clarke made her way to the large group instruction room. The closer she got to it, the more she heard the voices coming from inside of it. "You've gotta be kidding me," she muttered before pushing the door to the room open.

The room went silent as dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at her. She spotted Octavia and Raven sitting with a few others, an empty chair for you next to them.

"How nice of you to join us, Miss Griffin," said a short, brown-haired woman from the front of the room. "This meeting began ten minutes ago and I expect you to be on time, no matter the circumstances. I expect to see you in my office as soon as this meeting has concluded, understood?"

While the woman herself looked harmless, the glare on her face sent a chill down Clarke's spine. She stood frozen in the doorway for a few seconds before rapidly nodding her head and scurrying off to the open seat by Raven as quickly as possible. Once she had sat down, the woman in the front of the room continued where she had left off.

Raven turned in her seat to whisper to Clarke, "What did I tell you?"

"It would have been nice if you told me where the meeting was, thank you very much!" Clarke aggressively whispered back. The room once again went silent as the principal stopped speaking.

"Miss Griffin, am I going to have to ask you to leave this room. Because I assure you, once you do, you will not step foot back into this school." Although her voice was quiet, the anger in her tone was obvious, as was the harsh look she was giving her.

"No ma'am, I apologize." Clarke tried to keep the fear out of her voice. It was clear to her from the looks she was getting from the staff members around her that she had something to fear.

The meeting continued on, and Clarke adamantly tried to pay attention, but Octavia wasn't kidding when she said that the meetings were boring. Clarke found herself completely zoning out of the principal's words and instead looking her over.

She had had a lot of guesses about what this "Commander Bitch" would look like, and she was completely wrong. When she thought of her, she'd pictures an older, heavyset woman with glasses and mole on her face. Principal Grounds was actually gorgeous.

Sitting near the front, Clarke was able to get a great view of her. What startled her the most was her eyes. They were a beautiful shade of green that made her think that she wouldn't mind looking at them if she didn't think that they could turn her to stone. It wasn't till she turned around to write something on the board that Clarke noticed her hair, which was done in a series of intricate braids going down her back.

From appearance alone, Principal Grounds looked nothing like the horrifying monster that Raven and Octavia had described her has. She looked so young, Clarke was shocked that she had managed to get to such a high position in the school. She couldn't have been more than a year or two older than herself.

Despite knowing she was about to get chewed out by her, Clarke couldn't help but admire the woman. She could see what Raven meant about the way she walked, but it made her look more threatening, like you shouldn't test your luck with her.

Clarke was startled out of her staring by the sound of chairs scratching across the floor all over the room. She had spent the entire meeting staring blankly at the principal.

"Go straight to her office. Do not look her in directly in the eyes and just grovel. Beg for mercy. You can do this, Clarke!" Octavia gripped Clarke by both shoulders and practically yelled in her face. "You do know where her office is...right?"

Clarke shook Octavia's hands off of her. "Yeah, I went in there to get my keys from the secretary. She seems reasonably. If I just explain to her that I got lost maybe she'll-"

Octavia's eyes widened at her words "No! Do not argue! Just accept your punishment!"

"She's right, just accept whatever she tells you. Trust me, you're not getting out of this," said a man sitting next to Raven. His long hair was tied back and his eyes shone with pity.

Clarke shook her head at them. "Alright, alright, now let me go before I'm late to her office."

She hurried out of the room and made the short walk down the hallway to where the main offices were located. She walked inside and spotted the secretary that had given her her keys before. "Principal Grounds wanted to see me?"

The woman at the desk smiled at her before pointing her to a door located to the left of her desk. On the door was written Lexa Grounds, Executive Principal. Clarke braced herself before knocking.

Almost immediately a "Come in" sounded from the other side of the door. Clarke let herself in, shutting it behind her.

"Miss Griffin, have a seat." Seated  behind her large wooden desk, Principal Grounds looked even more intimidating. Clarke shuffled herself forward and took a seat in the uncomfortably small chair located in front of the large desk. "Tardiness will not be tolerated in my meeting, and neither will disruptions."

"Principal Grounds, if you would just let me explain-" Clarke started before being cut off.

"I will have no excuses. You are either on time or you may not be a part of my faculty. Now, as for your punishment-"

Clarke stood up from her seat, "I was late because I'm new! No one told me how to get to the staff meetings, no one even told me there were staff meetings! Today was my first day! Don't I deserve some leniency?"

A fire lit up behind Principal Grounds' eyes. "I will not stand to be interrupted, Miss Griffin. Do you think I'm beyond firing you on your first day here? Now sit down!"

"No! If you're going to fire me, then fire me." Silence filled the room as the two women stared each other down. Though her eyes were filled with anger at Clarke's defiance, she could have sworn that she saw a tinge of something else in them.

After what felt like an hour of silence, the Principal spoke. "This is your one and only warning. Show up on time, or don't bother showing up. Originally, I intended for your punishment to be spending one of your planning periods in charge of the in school suspension room. Thanks to your outburst, however, you will be spending the first week of school in charge of after school detention alongside me. You are dismissed."

The Principal's gaze dropped to the papers on her desk as she picked up a pen laying next to the. Clarke stared blankly at her. Noticing that Clarke still hadn't moved, Principal Grounds looked up. "I said you're dismissed. Now go home and get some rest."

Shocked, Clarke nodded dumbly before slowly turning and exiting the room. She had been sure that she would be fired after she let her temper get the better of her. It shocked her that the Principal known for being so cold hearted backed down so quickly.

It was only when she started her car that her punishment really set in. One week of spending an hour after school. An hour that'll be spent with the kids doing poorly enough to get detention on the first week of school and the boss that she was sure hated her right now.

She groaned and smacked her head against her steering wheel. She could already tell that this was going to be the longest school year of her life.


	2. Chapter 2

"She lives!" Clarke recognized the voice as Octavia's and spun around in her chair to greet her with a smile. She was followed by long haired man who'd spoken to her at the meeting yesterday.

"I live!" she spoke through a mouthful of her sandwich. She had spent her planning period earlier this morning unpacking boxes of art supplies that had arrived this morning and hadn't gotten a chance to rest since. The teacher's room had been empty when she walked in and settled down to eat her lunch.

Octavia and the man pulled out chairs and joined Clarke at the table. She stared curiously at the man in front of her, awaiting Octavia's introduction.

"We thought you got canned! Raven stopped by your room before class this morning and didn't see you there, so we figured she just fired you on the spot. Thank god she didn't though!" Clarke just stared back at her pointedly. "Oh! This is Finn, history teacher and most recent newbie until you showed up!"

He was undeniably attractive, and the way his smile lit up his eyes as he reached his hand out to meet Clarke's made her smile back twice as bright. "Hi, I'm Clarke, art teaching extraordinaire!"

Octavia's eyes widened slightly at the interaction. "Him and Raven had a thing when he first started here last year, but now we're friends."

Clarke's smile dropped slightly at the hint Octavia was trying to drop to her. He was off limits unless she wanted to alienate the only two friends she had made so far at this job. Which means he was off limits, period. Finn, obviously also picking up on Octavia's hint, dropped his eyes to the ground.

Octavia broke the silence. "So, tell us what happened! Did she stick a knife through your hand? Make you get on your knees and cry for forgiveness?"

Clarke paused, rethinking the brief conversation she had had with her boss yesterday. "Actually...I think she went easy on me." Octavia opened her mouth to call her insane. "I'm serious! She probably should have fired me after I mouthed off to her. I would have fired me. But she just gave me detention duty with her for the next week. I mean, it's not my idea of a good time, but it could be worse, right?"

Finn and Octavia gaped at her. "By mouth off to her...do you mean got on your knees and crying? Or do you mean...telling her off?" Finn asked, staring at her intently.

"I just told her that if she wanted me to be on time to the meeting, she should have better prepared me for the first day of school." She was met with wide eyes. "Am I not right? She didn't even meet me till that meeting, let alone tell me there was a meeting to begin with."

"Oh believe me, I know. What I'm having a hard time accepting here is that she accepted that." Finn's questioning and Octavia's disbelief was starting to grind on Clarke's nerves.

"Can you guys just tell me what exactly she has done to get such a bad reputation? She seemed reasonable enough to me." Sometimes good people get bad reputations from stupid rumors, that's something she learned when she went to high school herself.

"Let's see. Her record for firing is five teachers in one year, two of which were for the same subject. Two years ago, our state test score ranking dropped and she made every teacher in the school go to workshops every day over spring break last year. My brother, Bellamy, was a janitor here till some kid slipped on some spilled milk in the cafeteria and she fired him for not having it cleaned up. Face it Clarke, you cheated death."

Clarke stared at the serious expressions on the two faces in front of her. "This is ridiculous. She can't be that bad. Besides, why me? All I did was show up late and interrupt her. She had no reason to go easy on me."

Finn rolled his eyes. "Two simple facts. You're hot. She's gay." Octavia smacked his shoulder, causing him to turn and glare at her. "What? You know it's true."

"You're trying to tell me that the reason I still have my job is because the stone faced, cold hearted principal has the hots for me?" She turned to Octavia for some sense, receiving only a shrug. "You think that's more likely than her just being nice?"

"Yes," the teachers across from her answered together.

Clarke shook her head.  "Okay, you guys are insane and my lunch is over in five, so I'll see you tomorrow." Clarke gathered her garbage, throwing it out on her way out of the room.

"Have fun on your detention date!" called Octavia as the door shut behind her.

\--

The last bell of the school day rang just as the last student handed her their assignment for the day. Clarke brought them back to her desk and flipped through them. She had told the students to draw anything that they thought would show her their artistic abilities. So far, most of what she'd received had been stick figures. She'd gotten a few shockingly good drawings, but for the most part, they were disappointing. It wasn't possible that none of these kids had a shred of artistic talent in their bodies, they just didn't want to put forth the effort to show it.

A knock on her open door startled her out of her reverie. "So I got a text earlier today that says, and I quote, 'Clarke is alive and fucking the boss'. Care to explain?"

Clarke's head snapped up from the papers and her hands. She gaped at the smirking tech teacher standing in her doorway. "She told you that? It was my first day, she let me off the hook, end of story."

Raven rolled her eyes, her smirk remaining on her face. "Octavia just desperately wants the principal to get laid. She thinks it'll make her less of a bitch."

"Well, considering that's not happening, I better head to detention before I'm late to my punishment for being late." Clarke shoved the students' papers into her briefcase and walked to the door, only to meet Raven blocking her from leaving, her face furrowed in confusion. "What?"

"Did you say you're going to detention duty?"

"Yeah, she told me that I had to help her with it for the next week. Which, the more I think about it, the more awful it sounds. So really, I don't think I got off that easy. Now excuse me, before she adds on another week." Clarke pushed past Raven into the hallway and started walking in the direction of the cafeterias, where the detention was held.

She walked away from Raven's call of "She never makes people help her with detention duty!", ignoring the unsettled feeling that rose in her gut at the words.

Walking into the first cafeteria, she found it to be almost completely empty, save for one sullen looking student seated near the door and Principal Grounds sitting at a table at the front of the room. She walked over to the table as quietly as possible, afraid of disturbing the silence in the cafeteria. Approaching the table that the principal was sitting at, she hesitated, unsure of where to sit.

"Just take a seat, Miss Griffin," she said, without so much as a glance in her direction. Clarke pulled out the chair across from her and sat down. She tried to avoid looking directly at the principal in front of her, afraid to antagonize her further.

Clarke had never actually been to a principal's detention in high school, so she wasn't sure what exactly it was that the teachers running it did for the hour that they were stuck here. Risking a glance at her boss, she saw that the principal appeared to be filling out some paperwork.

"I suggest you find some work to occupy your time." Still, no glance up from the woman sitting across from her. Clarke pulled out the drawings that she had collected from her students today and continued to flip through them.

From this assignment she could already tell that she was going to have to put in some work to get these kids to put in a little more effort into their work. When she had been in high school, art was her solace. She'd go to art class and jump right into the assignment, blocking out the world and letting all of her emotions out onto the paper. It never occurred to her that other students wouldn't have the same reaction to it as her.

She flipped to the last piece of paper in the stack and saw that it was yet another stick figure, standing next to what looked like a stick figure version of a dog. Sighing, she put the stack of assignments back into her briefcase. She decided to give everyone a hundred on the assignment. She didn't want her students thinking that she was going to grade them based on their artistic talent alone. Even the least talented student could get a good grade if they put some thought and feeling into their piece, and she wanted them to know that.

A glance at her phone screen told her that it had taken her all of fifteen minutes to look through the only work she had brought with her. With forty five minutes to go, there was nothing for her to do.

"Do you have a blank sheet of paper?" Silence followed her question, the principal slowly raising her head to look at her. She started at Clarke for a second longer and let a breath out of her nose before fishing around in her briefcase.

Upon finding a piece of paper, she pulled it out and set it down in front of Clarke. "I suggest you bring your own supplies from now own." Following a brisk nod from her Clarke, her gaze dropped back down to the paperwork that she had been so diligently working on.

Clarke stared at her paper for a few moments, considering what she wanted to draw. She hadn't had a chance to draw since she started the job, which was unusual because for most of her life, she couldn't remember a day that had gone by that she hadn't drawn at least something.

The thought of the job made it come to her. She started with the straight outline of a doorway, then began on the curves of a body leaning against it. With the time that she had left here, she figured she could give it to Raven tomorrow morning, as a sort of thank you for taking Clarke under her wing and introducing her to her friends.

As she concentrated on getting the curve of the other woman's smirk just right she could have sworn she felt the eyes in front of her glance at her work. She fought back the small smile threatening to form on her face and focused on trying to draw Raven's facial features from her memory alone.

The picture was starting to take form under her pencil as she shaded areas of her face to highlight her high cheekbones. A quick glance up at the woman in front of her confirmed her suspicion that she was in fact staring at her drawing as it took form on the page.

Noticing she'd been caught staring, the principals eyes shed their look of curiosity and wonder and slipped back into a cold glare. "I recommend that rather than waste your time on your personal artwork, tomorrow you bring more school related work to occupy your time."

"It's only the second day of school, what work could I possibly have to work on?"

Clarke's question was met with no answer as Principal Grounds took a look at the clock on the wall and turned to the lone student that occupied the cafeteria with them. "You may go."

Furrowing her eyebrows, a glance at the clock told her that an hour had already passed. It was 3:10, and she could finally head home. She rose from her seat, seeing that the student had left the room as soon as the principal had allowed him to.

She shot a small smile to her boss before walking away and calling out a "See you tomorrow!" over her shoulder. Her bed was calling her name for a nice, long nap.

\--

"Y'know, I imagined that your room would look just like mine, but with a big saw on every table." Clarke stood in the doorway of Raven's classroom the next morning, looking around at all the machines lining the back wall. The room was twice the size of her own, if not double.

Raven looked up from where she was standing at one of the saws in the back corner of the room. Large goggles covered most of her face. Seeing Clarke standing in the doorway, she smiled and took them off, tossing them on a nearby table.

She walked towards the door, waving for Clarke to come in. "I was gonna walk over and ask how your detention duty went as soon as I finished working on that saw." Catching sight of a piece of paper in Clarke's hand, she walked over to meet here where she stood near the door. "What's that?"

Clarke glanced down at the paper she held in her hands. Feeling slightly embarrassed for drawing the other woman, Clarke shrugged and handed her the piece of paper, a tinge of pink coloring her cheeks. "Oh, I was just bored during detention yesterday. Decided I might as well draw you something. You know...as a thanks for helping me out here."

Looking down at the paper she now held in her hands, Raven's face broke out in a huge grin. She reached out and pulled Clarke into a hug. "What are friends for?"

Clarke's smile widened at Raven officially calling her a friend. "But, yeah, detention was boring. The boss did not try to seduce me. Actually, she barely even looked at me."

"Aw, looks like we won't be using you to convince her to raise our funding any time soon."

Rolling her eyes, Clarke made her way back to the door. "Well, I've got some things to set up, I'll catch you later?"

"You have a lunch block fifth period, right?" Clarke nodded her head. "Sweet, I should be there with Finn and Octavia this time. See you then."

"See you!" Clarke waved, walking out the door and back across the hall.

\--

Clarke walked into the cafeteria at the end of the day with a smile on her face. She'd had a nice lunch with her new friends, and she'd actually enjoyed giving her lesson for the day to her students. It seemed like maybe some of them had enjoyed it too.

Her lesson today had consisted of her mainly lecturing her students on styles of art and famous artists, leaving her with yet again, no work to do in the hour that she had detention. She had come prepared this time, throwing her sketchbook into her briefcase before she left the house this morning.

Principal Grounds sat at the same table as yesterday, and the boy that had been here yesterday was sitting in the same spot. There were no more students in the room.

"Hello again, boss." Clarke smiled at the principal before plopping herself down in the seat across from her. Pulling her sketchbook out of her briefcase and putting a pencil down on top of it, she looked up to find her boss staring at her, expressionless.

"Hello," came her curt reply. Satisfied with her answer, Clarke opened her sketchbook and set to work on a blank page. Settling into her drawing, the world begin to fade out around her, until her concentration was shattered by a voice breaking the silence. "I see you've brought something to do today."

Clarke looked up at the woman across from her. She still hadn't looked up from her work, but her tone of voice was not the accusatory one she had used yesterday. It seem almost conversational, as if she was trying to make casual conversation.

"Um, yeah. I drew a picture of one of my friends yesterday, and she seemed to like it. Thought I might as well draw some more since I have so much spare time here."

The other woman nodded and the room went silent again. This silence felt vaguely different. Almost comfortable.

Clarke tried not to smile at the paper in front of her as she continued with her drawing.

\--

The next two day's detentions went much the same. Clarke would pull out her sketchbook and start drawing something or someone, getting lost in her work. Occasionally, the principal would make some offhand comment about the weather, causing them to exchange a few sentences of conversation before they settled back into silence.

Clarke tried not to dwell on it too much. Detention was long and boring. Anyone would want to start some sort of conversation to break the awful silence.

Despite her best efforts, she found herself looking forward to her quality time with her boss. They hadn't become best friends, or even friends at that, but it made her feel special to be privy to the little facts that Principal Grounds told her about herself.

Thursday, she'd been drawing a forest scene when she caught her boss staring at it. She continued sketching quietly, knowing that the other woman would comment when she felt like it. Sure enough, a few minutes later the woman spoke. "That reminds me of the woods near my campground. Very realistic."

She stared for a few minutes longer, as Clarke drew in the details of the trunks of the trees, before letting out a light sigh and dropping her gaze back to the paperwork in front of her.

When she left that day, Clarke left the drawing of the forest sitting on the table, not daring to turn back and witness her reaction. If she had, she would have seen the stoic principal turn around in her chair and watch Clarke walk away, a ghost of a smile on her lips.

\--

There was no detention on Mondays, due to the weekly staff meetings. This time, Clarke managed to show up on time, even beating Raven and Octavia there.

"Trying to impress a certain someone?" came Octavia's voice as she settled into the seat next to Clarke.

Rolling her eyes, she decided not to dignify that with an answer. She knew Octavia was kidding, none of her friends actually thought that she had feelings for their boss, though Octavia was still convinced the opposite was true.

Because of that, she'd kept the details of her after school detentions with the principal to herself. She didn't need to give her more of a reason to assume anything. There wasn't anything wrong with a boss making idle conversation with one of her employees. Not even "Commander Bitch", as Octavia loved to call her, could be completely cold-hearted.

The meeting began and, just like the last one, Clarke was bored to tears. She found herself zoned out and thinking about the bubble bath that was waiting for her at home.

Her attention was drawn back to the front of the room when she made eye contact with the principal. The other woman's gaze lingered on hers for a second too long before she blinked and turned her entire body in the opposite direction. Throughout the rest of the meeting, the principal seemed to only be speaking to the other side of the room.

The closing statements were made and all the teachers slowly gathered their things and filed out of the room, Octavia, Clarke, Raven, and Finn being the last ones to leave. They walked to the parking lot together, discussing plans for this weekend. They'd all agreed to go out for drinks Friday night after work and were about to go their separate ways when Octavia spoke up. "Pause, before we all go, I need to address something." Everyone turned to look at her. "We all saw Commander Bitch giving Clarke the staredown, right?"

Clarke gave an exasperated sigh. "Octavia, she was lecturing the whole room, of course she looked at me." She didn't really believe her own words as she spoke them. The memory of the intense stare locking into hers sent a shiver down her spine. It wasn't the same kind of stare she'd gotten when she walked in ten minutes late on her first day. It was almost fascinated. Like the principal was trying to read her in the middle of the meeting.

"I'm with O here, that was kinda weird. One second she was staring straight at you, then she wouldn't even look over at us. Weird." Finn stated, pulling the band out of his hair and shaking it out behind him.

"Both of you just shut up already." Raven glared at both of them as she said this. "I think Clarke would know if there was something more going on here. Now all of you, go home. Go nap. We all need it after that snorefest."

They all chuckled and said their goodbye, heading in their respective directions.

\--

Walking into the cafeteria Tuesday afternoon felt bittersweet. On one hand, Clarke knew that this was the last day of her punishment and that she was allowed to go home after school now. On the other hand, she felt like she would miss her quality time with her boss. They'd gotten on each other's good sides in the week that they'd spent running detention together, and she didn't want that to end quite yet.

Lost in thought, it took her a second before she noticed that the cafeteria was deserted, save for her boss, sitting alone at a table, as usual. The one boy that always seemed to be sitting at the table near the door was nowhere to be found.

As Clarke approached the table that she'd grown accustomed to sitting at on a daily basis, her boss spoke. "You can head home, Miss Griffin. There are no students in detention today."

"Oh, alright. Thanks!" Clarke turned to walk out of the cafeteria before it came to her attention that the principal was still sitting at the table, staring over some paper, as per usual. "Wait, what about you?"

The movement of the other woman's pen stopped for a moment, then continued. "Someone must remain in detention even if no one has been assigned detention that afternoon. It's unnecessary for two people to keep watch over an empty cafeteria."

"So, if I go, you still have to stay for the full hour?"

"Yes." Clarke hesitated at the door. She had two options. Accept this newfound kindness and head home, leaving her to sit here alone for an hour, or suck it up and spend an unnecessary extra hour at school.

The answer was obvious, and with a sigh she walked out of the cafeteria.

When she returned ten minutes later, she was struggling to balance a coffee cup on top of the other so that she could use her other hand to carry her briefcase. She regretted not leaving it on the table while she ran to get the coffee from the teacher's lounge.

Walking slowly into the room to avoid dropping the coffee, the first thing noticed was the change in the principal's appearance. When she'd left, she was sitting ramrod straight, hovering over her paperwork. Now, her shoulders were slumped forward, her hands holding her head as her elbows rested on the table.

Clarke felt a spark of pity shoot through her as she realized that the principal must have thought she went home.

She made sure to make her heels click on the ground as she approached the table, alerting the principal to her presence. Her back immediately stiffened at the noise, her head raising, her hand grasping for her pen. Within a matter of a few seconds, she looked exactly as Clarke had left her.

"If we're going to be stuck here, I figured we could use some coffee. I hope black is okay." Clarke set both of the coffees down on the table.

She looked over at her boss, awaiting her response. The woman looked stunned for a moment before falling back into her stoic stare. "Black is fine."

Clarke nodded and took a seat across from her, silently pulling out her sketch pad and a pencil and beginning work on her latest drawing.

A few minutes had passed before heard a soft voice come from across from her. "Thank you." Clarke glanced up to see a small smile on her face as she silently wrote on her papers.

"You're welcome," she said with a bright smile, before turning her gaze back down to her sketchbook.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the nice comments on the first chapter! Hope you're still reading for this one

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a teacher, so I apologize if I got anything about it wrong. 
> 
> I hope to update this at least once a week, on Sundays, but don't hold me to that. The amount of chapters is just an estimate.
> 
> Ask me any questions on my Tumblr, stlinski.tumblr.com!
> 
> EDIT: oh god I'm so sorry I did it again I didn't finish ANOTHER fic


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